Rubens Barrichello says Texas track is neat, not sure yet about the racing

Team Chevy Racing

Rubens Barrichello

Photo by: Adriano Manocchia

RUBENS BARRICHELLO, NO. 8 BMC/EMBRASE KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET

ON HIS FIRST RACE AT TEXAS: “Apart from the little running I had in May, I’ve been watching videos and watching all the data, and everything to see how—to see what the racing’s like. The drivers are all very, VERY concerned not to have any pack racing for our safety, and I’m just learning from everything that is quite new, and I hope that we have a safe and very good race. I think that everyone likes being here.”

ON EVER SEEING ANYTHING LIKE TMS BEFORE IN HIS CAREER: “The only thing I’ve seen in my life was when we were in traffic getting out of the Monza Circuit (Italy). We were diverted to the old banking. (SMILES) I don’t know how many degrees was that. When I got here, and TK (Tony Kanaan) took me around in a normal car; we took a picture of the track off of turn one. It is amazing. It’s amazing. Take a picture from the top, and you can hardly see you. It’s really neat. Honestly, I don’t know anything about the racing.”

ON HIS SEASON SO FAR: “If you look at the six weeks, you have to include Indy. I think Indy was quite good. I don’t think I had a fast car. I had a rookie sensation there. I was driving with every car the way I like to ride. It was a good ride. I wasn’t taking myself to being in danger. I had to learn things. I could have been different into that last 20 laps that would have given me a top-six spot very clearly. Like I said, I didn’t have the car to win, but probably had a top-six, and it was good enough. With my sense from Formula 1 just a year ago, watching Indy and thinking ‘Yes, we can do this; we can do that’, we know nothing. It is unbelievable how different it is from the other cars. Downforce wise. Just working with somebody to pull away from other people. Overtaking on the outside is just so different. It was really, really different. It took me by surprise, somewhat. Some of that happened in the last 20 laps. We move on to Detroit. It was a very sad weekend in a way, because I wasn’t competitive. I was having trouble, not just with the setup, but with the car. We took a gamble and change chassis. I started in the back. I was running quite ok because it was the very first time I was able to overtake people until I had some problems with the electronics and the car started to misfire. We tried to go back out and it didn’t work. I was quite happy with the car at that time. The thing that I am saying I could have 70 years of experience when you come into a different series, and different tracks, and different so on; especially with Detroit being so bumpy. It was hard to get a read on everything. Just need more time.”

ON HOW DIFFERENT INDYCAR IS FROM F1: “It’s so different. So so different. If people had told me I would have got out of the car and feel sick…I didn’t feel sick, but I saw the world moving a little bit. It’s different. It’s just different. Like I said before, if the IndyCar Series were done in Europe or the races I had done, I’m pretty sure I was going to be a lot more competitive because it is a new thing. From the setup to the lines to everything that these guys have been doing for such a long time. It is very different. I’m very competitive as a person, and as a driver. I’m trying my best to conform with everything. Texas still does not rank, because I do not know what to expect.”

ON HIS HUGE FOLLOWING ON TWITTER (1,692,273 as of now): “I never entered the Twitter thing thinking that I needed to have more followers than others. Probably that’s what happened. That’s why I end up having them. I do think that fans want that. I didn’t do that because of the sponsors. I didn’t do that because I wanted just to give TV the kind of thing people do to have fans follow them. Probably that is why I have a lot of followers, because I just have their respect. We just have conversations and things like this. This weekend, for example, people in Brazil is yesterday and today days off, and they are having easy time. For them, to watch a race on a Saturday night is probably going to be a really nice evening with a bit of pizza, some soft drinks and just watch. I guess they are following the Twitter very closely this weekend. I might work on the Twitter in the future in terms of getting more publicity, and I do {have} my sponsors on my page just to make obviously a happening for them. But, it’s not like I use the Twitter for anything more than getting this relationship with the fans, which I think is great.”